Cody Gakpo is hopeful that his Liverpool teammate Mohamed Salah will extend his stay at Anfield. The 32-year-old Egypt forward is out of contract at the end of the season and a new deal is yet to be agreed.
Salah has been in sensational form this season and the two goals he scored against Tottenham on Sunday took him above Billy Liddell into fourth place on Liverpool’s list of all-time leading goalscorers.
“It’s very special what we are all witnessing,” Gakpo told the club’s website. “The amount of goals he scores but the assists he gives as well, the way he plays the game, how he puts other attacking players or midfielders like myself in a position to score and to be dangerous is from a high level.
“I hope for us and for him that he can continue doing that for a long time. We are very lucky to have him and proud that we can be his teammate[s] and try to make him better. And he is trying to make us better as well.”
Gakpo has also been a key man in Liverpool’s surge to the top of the Premier League table, scoring nine goals, including seven in his past 12 games in all competitions. The Dutch international joined Liverpool two years ago after stellar performances at the World Cup, and he expressed his hope to stay at the club for “many more years”.
Gakpo said: “I enjoy every minute I’m here. It has been a fantastic two years for myself. A lot of things happened obviously – a lot of good moments, some less good moments – but a lot of things that I’ve learned. I’m very happy to be here at the club, hopefully for many more years. I think now we are in a good place as a team and I’m very happy that I can contribute as well.”
Boxing Day will bring an Anfield reunion for Gakpo with the Leicester City manager, Ruud van Nistelrooy, with whom he worked at PSV Eindhoven. Having begun his tenure with victory over West Ham, Van Nistelrooy has been quickly brought down to earth by heavy back-to-back defeats against Newcastle and Wolves.
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“He was the striker coach for me when I was in the first team a little bit and also when I was in the academy,” Gakpo said of Van Nistelrooy. “I learned a lot from him and I’m very grateful for all the lessons. He was also my head coach in the last half-season I was at PSV, so very grateful for all the lessons he taught me and it was an honour to get all those teachings from him.”
